Today was Valentine’s day & nothing says ‘Une histoire d’amour‘ like remote working from a dingy hostel room. ❤️
Fortunately, it was only 3 hours in the morning & then 3 later in the day and Etienne did some researching during my morning shift to make of the most of the time in between. (He found a super useful blog which helped shape his plans.)
We headed south this time. First stop – Loblaws for lunch supplies. (I seem to be intolerant to lots of Canadian foods/products, so Canadian Ceri is one of those no-gluten, preferably-organic, carry-my-own-soap kinda gals… so sometimes easier to just make lunch!)
We wandered down through Yonge-Dundas square which is basically Toronto’s answer to Times Square/Piccadilly Circus. I didn’t take a photo, but imagine billboards and busy pedestrian crossings & you’re probably pretty close.
We then turned into Nathan-Phillips Square, where we were disappointed to see it was just an empty plaza with a statue of Winston Churchill. We were starving by this point though, so sat with Old Winnie for lunch. After we finished, we found the actual square about 20 yards along (see pic). Slightly more impressive than our little spot, but there’s deffo worse people to lunch with than Churchill, so can’t complain too much.
After lunch I needed a wee, because I always do. So, we popped into the station for their loo aaaand… more freebies!!! A giveaway for Chocolate & San Pelegrino. YAY AGAIN! 🍫🥤
Next, we were off to the CN Tower. It was a beautiful day; bright sun & not a cloud in the sky – perfect for walking, but not always for the best for views (Too bright is definitely a thing at 450m). Combining that with the fact the sky-walk was closed for maintenance, we decided not to go up & instead took a quick snap from below and went to look at the old trains across the road.
Next up on Etienne’s tour was a look round St. Lawrence Market. Lots of lovely looking foods here. We were pretty full from lunch still though, so just looked around & sapped it all in. Sadly no free samples.
As we left, we had two unexpected additions to the tour:
1. The ‘dog fountain’. (Is this a known landmark!? Also, a cool detail I missed here. )
2. Our first ever Thrift Store!!! (Found the PERFECT jumper for my niece but we don’t have luggage space til I ditch my ice skates so couldn’t get it. Hoping we find something similar in Vancouver. 🤞)
Our final destination on the V-Day tour was the Distillery District. This was a super cool little area – lots of red bricks, indie shops & coffee places. We popped into a little art shop with a ‘love’ exhibition on, mooched around the shops, then grabbed a hot (non-alcoholic) cider & headed back to the hostel. Could happily have spent the evening here just soaking in the vibe
*I’ve actually cheated a bit with this pic… If you’ve got good EY’es you probably spotted. 👀
** Orange Cab = my name, not an official name, for these taxis.
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Read more: Walking tour of Toronto. (Day 1)